{"id":"01KG8AM9VPNQQRXKKFCHQ4FR35","cid":"bafkreiejtnbdwcto3cvzadbwjq6myq3ntyihsxbpehuz4jf5aahiqrori4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4953,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 28","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":4889,"text":"saw and the snow went together like two natural things. The first day\r\nthis man came, he brought his dinner with him, and volunteered to eat it\r\nsitting on his buck in the snowstorm. From my window, where I was\r\nreading Burton’s _Anatomy of Melancholy_, I saw him in the act. I burst\r\nout of doors bare-headed. ‘Good heavens!’ cried I; ‘what are you doing?\r\nCome in. _This_ your dinner!’\r\n\r\nHe had a hunk of stale bread and another hunk of salt beef, wrapped in a\r\nwet newspaper, and washed his morsels down by melting a handful of fresh\r\nsnow in his mouth. I took this rash man indoors, planted him by the\r\nfire, gave him a dish of hot pork and beans, and a mug of cider.\r\n\r\n‘Now,’ said I, ‘don’t you bring any of your damp dinners here. You work\r\nby the job, to be sure, but I’ll dine you for all that.’\r\n\r\nHe expressed his acknowledgments in a calm, proud, but not ungrateful\r\nway, and dispatched his meal with satisfaction to himself, and me also.\r\nIt afforded me pleasure to perceive that he quaffed down his mug of\r\ncider like a man. I honoured him. When I addressed him in the way of\r\nbusiness at his buck, I did so in a guardedly respectful and deferential\r\nmanner. Interested in his singular aspect, struck by his wondrous\r\nintensity of application at his saw--a most wearisome and disgustful\r\noccupation to most people--I often sought to gather from him who he was,\r\nwhat sort of a life he led, where he was born, and so on. But he was\r\nmum. He came to saw my wood, and eat my dinners--if I chose to offer\r\nthem--but not to gabble. At first I somewhat resented his sullen silence\r\nunder the circumstances. But better considering it, I honoured him the\r\nmore. I increased the respectfulness and deferentialness of my address\r\ntoward him. I concluded within myself that this man had experienced hard\r\ntimes; that he had had many sore rubs in the world; that he was of a\r\nsolemn disposition; that he was of the mind of Solomon; that he lived\r\ncalmly, decorously, temperately; and though a very poor man, was,\r\nnevertheless, a highly respectable one. At times I imagined that he\r\nmight even be an elder or deacon of some small country church. I thought\r\nit would not be a bad plan to run this excellent man for President of\r\nthe United States. He would prove a great reformer of abuses.\r\n\r\nHis name was Merrymusk. I had often thought how jolly a name for so\r\nunjolly a wight. I inquired of people whether they knew Merrymusk. But\r\nit was some time before I learned much about him. He was by birth a\r\nMarylander, it appeared, who had long lived in the country round about;\r\na wandering man; until within some ten years ago, a thriftless man,\r\nthough perfectly innocent of crime; a man who would work hard a month\r\nwith surprising soberness, and then spend all his wages in one riotous\r\nnight. In youth he had been a sailor, and run away from his ship at\r\nBatavia, where he caught the fever, and came nigh dying. But he rallied,\r\nreshipped, landed home, found all his friends dead, and struck for the\r\nNorthern interior, where he had since tarried. Nine years back he had\r\nmarried a wife, and now had four children. His wife was become a perfect\r\ninvalid; one child had the white-swelling, and the rest were rickety. He\r\nand his family lived in a shanty on a lonely barren patch nigh the\r\nrailroad-track, where it passed close to the base of a mountain. He had\r\nbought a fine cow to have plenty of wholesome milk for his children; but\r\nthe cow died during an accouchement, and he could not afford to buy\r\nanother. Still, his family never suffered for lack of food. He worked\r\nhard and brought it to them.\r\n\r\nNow, as I said before, having long previously sawed my wood, this\r\nMerrymusk came for his pay.\r\n\r\n‘My friend,’ said I, ‘do you know of any gentleman hereabouts who owns\r\nan extraordinary cock?’\r\n\r\nThe twinkle glittered quite plain in the wood-sawyer’s eye.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 28"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVQAZF49HK19VVYQ1DXW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM9VRSMVCPBC0WNHATJ4V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM9VPSDKMSX9JJ4EVATTA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.630Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.900Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}